Main Street Needs a Hand

Government is and should be in the business of stimulating the economy to help its citizens achieve national goals like putting people back to work. When Ike Eisenhower returned from Germany after World War II, he said we need an interstate highway system to move our people and goods coast to coast like Germany’s rail system. The same could be said today about rebuilding our crumbling infrastructures.

Some say government should not be in the business of creating jobs. They are wrong. The government is the custodian of the public land and buildings. All improvements thereto benefit the people. President Roosevelt put people to work improving the public lands with roads and structures when the U.S. had 25 percent unemployment. In 2008, economists warned the government that we could suffer that again if we did not bail out Wall Street. Well, now, Main Street needs a hand.

Nationally, over the last 15 years, small businesses have generated 64 percent of the jobs created in the U.S. and need help to maintain or start up their business in this economy. Under the president’s recently proposed plan, for every new employee hired in 2010, employers will get a tax credit of up to $5,000.

Under the president’s plan, small business owners also have a tax break incentive to increase employees’ wages faster than inflation. Small businesses help build the local economy from the ground up. When employees earn, their income enters the stream of commerce, and in turn is spent in restaurants, at car dealers and other businesses.

Another proposal temporarily eliminates capital gains on small businesses and allots $30 billion in TARP funds for community banks to lend to small-businesses. Lending has dried up for small businesses. While pundits say we don’t need money now, the funds help stabilize small companies that need loans. Many small businesses are cyclic like real estate, construction companies and retail stores. They survive on their business line of credit until the next escrow closes, the project is complete or until their “busy” season.

But we must do more this year to help out Main Street. Our financial meltdown was the natural consequence of the Wall Street driven global economy together with the extraordinary burden of paying for two wars. At the same time, American jobs were shipped overseas. Middle class workers and small business owners with pensions or 401k plans, those who could least afford it, took the hardest financial hits in recent years.

For all the finger pointing, the financial crisis was set up by congressional vote on Gramm-Leach-Bliley in November 1999 with bipartisan support. Now, businesses must stand up and ask Congress when it intends to address the deregulation problem to ensure that phantom wealth Wall-Street driven bubbles are prevented. Even now, while AIG still owes taxpayers $182 billion, it announced a $100 million bonus plan.

President Obama was left with a mess caused by the “global” banking system and loosely regulated financial practices. Wall Street swallowed up the heart and soul of America’s income and businesses. Now, its time to help rebuild Main Street.

Comments

Umm, what is the connection between Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence? and how does either relate to this discussion?

You do not like ‘them’ ignoring the Constitution? Who’s ‘them’, and what parts specifically are they ignoring? This comment is vacuous.

“The majority of Americans know…”

The majority of gullible Americans know…

Why do people vote against their own self interest? Please abandon this nonsense about trickle-down economics. It’s BUNK. Reagan, during the tax overhaul, eliminated all but the Mortgage deduction for middle-class tax relief, effectively producing the single largest tax increase EVER. Please stop buying into the myth that Republicans are fiscal conservatives. There is little evedience to this effect, it’s smoke and mirrors.

Corporate contributions, as a percentage of Tax Revenue are MINOR as compared to individual revenue. Basically, most businesses ALREADY pay very little tax on profits, esp in the energy sector. More taxes are NOT going to decrease incentive for creation of profit. Big Corporations are adept at hiding profits, and taking them offshore. Please understand that big business is buying your opinion, and their message is deceitful at best.

Jimmy Carter had solar water heaters installed at the White House. RR had them removed. Obama has been in the White House over one year. How green is the White House as a result of his occupation. This ought to tell us what to expect from his policies.

State Governments are suppose to be the people’s governing & Federal Government is not suppose to tell the state governments what they can & cannot do. I wish Big Government would just get out of our lives. I do not like them ignoring the Constitution & I wish Obama would read the Declaration of Independence again since he said he greatly admired President Lincoln at one time. But Obama is not going to do that because he claims to be a Progressive, & he told the people he believed in spreading the wealth. Well, there is no wealth among most of us & the only thing he has spread is class warfare among us. The majority of Americans know that if you charge the rich & the corporations & banks more taxes they are going to pass the charge down to the little people. He also wanted the Pay as You Go bill to pass because he has no intentions on tightening his belt so if he can’t pay for something he wants they just charge all of us more taxes. He told the Muslims that we are no longer a Christian nation but a Muslim Nation now. He has spent us into no return & I think his goal is to destroy America & turn us into a third world country & he will be our dictator. Just like Chavez.

Wellness

Carole Bartolotto: The problem with concluding that GMOs are safe is that the argument for their safety rests solely on animal studies. These studies are offered as evidence that the debate over GMOs is over. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Environmentalism

Walker Foley: Elected officials seem to think there’s only one side of this property rights argument. The people who live in these communities have rights too, but the oil companies seem to have the jump on [the politicians’] side of the fence.